In another sign of escalation, Turkey’s military shelled Kurdish militia targets near the northern Syrian town of Azaz on Saturday, a Turkish military source said.
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The shelling targeted Kurdish forces who have been advancing in Aleppo province in a bid to seize ground ahead of the proposed ceasefire, put forward by world powers last week.
Western powers and Syrian opposition groups say Russian Federation is bombing civilians and undermining any prospects for peace – accusations that Russian Federation denies.
In Ankara, meanwhile, an unnamed Turkish official told reporters that Turkey would support a ground operation in Syria, but “with our worldwide allies”.
Norbert Roettgen, head of the foreign affairs committee in the German parliament, said Russian Federation was determined to create “facts on the ground”, to bolster its negotiating position. He said Russia’s approach had disqualified it as a partner in the fight against the Islamic State, and echoed the British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, who said the development in Syria “depends on Russian Federation”.
Putin “wants to use Syria as a live-fire exercise for Russia’s military”, the senator and 2008 USA presidential candidate said.
New hostilities have also broken out between Turkey and the Kurdish YPG militia since Munich, prompting Berlin to urge restraint.
“But the important thing is the Syrian regime does not have the forces, does not have the strength and the organisation to take control of those areas”.
Its concerns have heightened after tens of thousands of Syrians fled to the border amid a Russian-backed regime offensive in northern Aleppo province.
While Moscow has called for postponing the planned “cessation of hostilities” to March 1, opposition figures say that – in light of the enormous damage being sustained on the ground – they simply can’t wait that long.
Russian Federation began carrying out airstrikes in Syria in late September, with the stated goal of diminishing Islamic State forces. The Lebanese militant group is fighting alongside forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. Both countries are considered military superpowers and the destruction that war would have on the world would likely change human history forever.
The civil war in Syria, which started in 2011, has claimed over 250,000 lives so far, internally displaced over seven million people and sent nearly four million fleeing to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Europe.
Nearly 50 civilians were killed when missiles hit at least five medical facilities and two schools in rebel-held areas of Syria on Monday, according to the United Nations, which called the attacks a blatant violation of global law.
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Amid the escalating tensions, the Kremlin revealed that Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama had spoken on the phone about Syria on Sunday.
